Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is my dad's birthday! I won't reveal his age on here - just wanted to wish him a very happy birthday. Last year my sisters and I took him out for his birthday and made a big fuss which he hates (but I still think secretly enjoyed) and now I realize how special that was. I never dreamed that in 1 year I would move 1200 miles away and not get to see him on his birthday. He always downplays his birthday and says it is just another day and all he wants are hugs and kisses, but everyone deservers a big fuss on their birthday, especially him. I am going to try to skype with him while he is at my sisters house seeing laney in her cute costume. How cool would it be to have a birthday on Halloween!!! So lucky. You'd always have such fun birthday parties as a kid!

Thank you dad for being my rock and friend. There are many times I wouldn't have made it through if it weren't for your support. I am sad we won't get to celebrate with you but hope you have a wonderful day. Love you so much!

Love,

Angela, Kyle, and AW

Surprise visits from family

Orlando is (as I am sure you are all aware) a big convention place for a lot of companies. When my mom and Jack left on Tuesday I was a bit sad to see them go. So God decided to cheer me up a bit! My Uncle Larry from Birmingham (my dad's brother) called me on Tuesday and said he was in town until Thursday for a work convention! I was so excited. We made plans to meet up with him on Wednesday at his hotel for some drinks and dinner. Kyle was in Tampa that day for work and his hotel was down in a place called Celebration, FL, only about 20 minutes from our house. We met my uncle at his hotel and had a great evening. We had some drinks and then headed to one of the many restaurants at the hotel for dinner. It was so nice to see him again. We had stayed with him and my Aunt Myra in B'ham on our drive from OK to Orlando and that was 8 months ago, and the last time we saw him. It is always so nice to catch up with family, especially ones you don't get to see too often. Loved getting to hang out with him!

On Thursday night we ventured to Universal for their annual Halloween Horror Nights at the park. It was so much fun! My friend from work, Jaya, had invited us to go with her group of friends who were going so there were 11 of us. The park had random people walking around to scare you and the houses we went in were pretty good. They have 8 haunted houses - all movies themes- and various shows around the park too. We made it to Saw, Wolfman, Leave it to Cleaver, and Frankenstein. The lines got pretty long, some were up to 190 minutes and it was a school night. We also caught one of the shows called Bill and Ted's Halloween adventure. Apparently they have it every year but they change the content. It was all based on current pop culture people so as you can imagine they had a Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, Edward and Bella, and a very funny Christian Bale when he went crazy on that light guy. Pretty entertaining. We didn't get home until 1:30 AM but it was worth it!

Then on Sunday, Kyle's cousin Jason was in town for a golf tournament and we got to meet up with him. Kyle's dad Gary has a twin brother named Larry and Jason is Larry's son. It was the first time I had met anyone from Gary's side of the family and I was really excited to get to meet him! Kyle hadn't seen him in 15 years so it was a very nice reunion. And he recently got married to an Angela, so there are now two Angela Payne's in the same family! I love it and can't wait to meet her. Jason is the assistant golf coach at the University of Georgia so we got to walk around Islesworth and watch them all play. Islesworth is a really prestigious community in Orlando and is where Tiger Woods (and many other pro golfers) lives and it's the course that he practices at. The course was beautiful and Kyle even said he would be so nervous if he ever got to play that course. We also met up with Jason that night and went to a Kerr's Winghouse (like a hooters, but classier...no not really) for some wings and beer. Jason and Angela have invited us to Athens, GA for the Georgia / Tennessee Tech football game next weekend and I hope we get to go. It is only about a 6 hour drive so I'm pretty sure we're going to take them up on their offer. And they are expecting a little sweet baby in April so we are excited for them! Thank you Jason for the passes to the tournament and we hope we get to see you soon!

Love,

us

Mom and Jack Visit

Last Thursday my mom and Jack came in from Dallas to spend a couple days with us! It was so nice to spend time with family! On Thursday night we went to dinner at a place mom loves in Orlando called Fish Bones. We hadn't eaten there before but it was a wonderful dinner and everybody loved their meals. They have this huge wood fire grill in the front where they cook the fish and meat and it smelled amazing.

On Friday they dropped me off at work and got to see my office and then headed over to the Kennedy Space Center and Cocoa Beach for the day. They found this place along the way to ride on one of those airboats. I didn't know what that was, but she explained it to me! They got to ride on it in the swamps and saw some gators and other wildlife. They did say it was really fun so maybe it's something we should try out too. Then they went to the Kennedy Space Center which we also have not been to. They enjoyed it and that is definitely one place I want to go while we are here. Then they went to Cocoa beach for a little bit and came home. By time they got back to the house Friday night they were exhausted so we just ordered pizza and hung out at home.

On Saturday we got up and got ready to watch the OU/ tx game. I must say it was quite painful to watch them at the fair and not be there. I think we vowed to never miss this game again. I really missed everything about OU/ tx weekend, especailly the corny dogs! After the game we went to this place called Wonderworks. It's another place in Orlando that we hadn't been to yet and it was interesting. It's sort of like a big fun house with different things to do. It's hard to explain, check it out here...http://www.wonderworksonline.com/html/

After that we went to dinner at Bahama Breeze! Talk about blast from the past. The food was actually a bit better than I remembered. After that we were all pretty exhausted and went home since we knew Sunday was going to be a big day!

Sunday we went to our first Disney park since moving to Orlando...it only took us 8 months. But it helps when your parents buy the tickets for you to get in ;-) We went to Epcot and they are having an International Food and Wine Festival right now which was really fun. The weather was really nice too. I broke out my northface for the first time since we've moved. It was a bit windy at times but at least it wasn't inthe 90's! They had a bunch of tents from all different countries and you could sample food, wine, and beer from those countries. Everything we had was really good! We also got to ride some of the rides at Epcot. There is actually a big "ride" inside the silver ball thing. Not the best ride but it was interesting. We also rode the new "Sum of All Fears Ride." You get to create your own rollar coaster and then ride it on this simulater ride. Luckily we didn't really have to wait in line too long because it wasn't too exciting. We ate dinner at Season's 52 that night and had yet another wonderful meal there.

On Monday they decided to get up and go to the west coast beaches which are much prettier. They went to Clearwater for the day and really enjoyed getting to see the white sands! Their flight left on Tuesday and the time went by way too fast. It was such a wonderful visit and I am so glad we got to spend 5 days with them. We can't thank them enough for everything while they were here. We hope they had fun. AW certainly enjoyed getting to play ball with them all the time!

Love,

a and k

A very special visitor!

Last Thursday night my granddaddy went way out his way to stop in Orlando for the night to see his favorite granddaughter and grandson-in-law! ;-) He was our very first family member to come visit us in Orlando! He drove from TX to Pensacola, over to Orlando then on to Atlanta the next day. Even though I know we were very much so out of his way, he insisted! We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Seasons 52 and it was such a pleasure to hang out with him if only for an evening. He also greatly enjoyed playing soccer with AW...but who doesn't?! He is the only grandparent between both Kyle and I and we treasure any time we get to spend with him. Hopefully next time he visits he can stay a little longer to play some golf with Kyle. We love you Granddaddy!

My mom and step dad, Jack are coming to Orlando on Thursday to spend some good quality time with us. We will have such a fun time getting to hang out with them, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes! We aren't going to make it back for OU/ tx which will be a first for me since '02 and a first for Kyle since '01, but we will still be cheering loudly from FL. And maybe, just maybe, the Sooners will win a road game if we don't go!

On a side note, we are experiencing record highs here in FL, it is still in the mid 90's except now we aren't getting the mid day rain. It is so hot and so weird that we can still go lay out by the pool in mid October. Have a great Tuesday evening!

Love,

me and the hubs

p.s. I got the PB Thanksgiving catalog in the mail today and can not wait to thumb through it and drink a well deserved glass of wine! Kyle's lucky that I swore off purchasing home decor until we find a house! (which I'm not really sure why I would ever agree to that!)

p.p.s. I realized today we will be in Tulsa 6 weeks from tomorrow!!!! We daily discuss the lists of must eat at restaurants in norman/okc/tulsa areas. I'll share that list when it gets closer!

0 and 3 in Miami

Okay, it's taken me a few days to not be really upset with the OU football team. I am not a fair weather fan and I still love and support them even when we're not winning, it's just a little harder! We went down to Miami for the game and other than the game it was a great weekend with some of our very best friends. The Huston's made an extended weekend anniversary trip and the Rosses went on their honeymoon and we all ended up in Miami for the game. We had a great time hanging out on friday night going to a wonderful sushi dinner at Sushi Samba and then out and Saturday with breakfast at News Cafe then shopping and watching some football before we headed to the game.

Ohhh the game. This was our 3rd trip to Miami to watch OU play in a game (04 National Championship, 08 National Championship and this one). Same stadium, same outcome, same painstaking walk to the car, and same depressing mood of the group for the rest of the trip. I just want to know what it is like to travel to a game (also been to the 03 National Championship - lost to LSU, and of course BYU in dallas this year) win and celebrate all night with Sooner fans. It just finally wears on you after this many times. And it doesn't help that Miami fans are officially the worst fans I have ever had to deal with. Ever. Period. End of Story. I can't even repeat the things they said to me on my family friendly blog. but they were so bad Kyle had to literally "hold me back" and wrap his arms all the way around me and grab me so I couldn't get away. I so could have taken them. They make LSU fans look like saints and OSU fans look normal.

Anyway, you can all mark my words. Kyle and Angela are never going to another game in that stadium to watch OU play again. I will even go so far as to say that even if we have a son that plays for OU I still won't go to that stadium, not if you want us to win. I know it's not us, or what shirt we wear, or if we have our rally cap on. It's more than that. But I refuse to be a part of it again. I just hope we can beat OSU at home, I would really like to witness us win at least 1 of the 3 games I can attend this year. Don't make me become a Gator fan please!

Apparently, I am use to doing an X and an O for Chi O and totally messed up the OU! haha! And this was after a long day of tailgating and the entire OU is backwards.

Have a great rest of the week! The weekend is almost here. My Granddaddy will be in Orlando tomorrow to stay with us and take us to dinner and I am looking forward to seeing him. He wins the prize for first family member to visit us in Orlando. And my mom and Jack come 1 week from tomorrow for 5 day!

love

us